


Home, or what remains of it

by stepOnMeZenos



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Final Fantasy XIV Spoilers, Garlemald (Final Fantasy XIV), Gen, Introspection, Quintuple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:47:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22283602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stepOnMeZenos/pseuds/stepOnMeZenos
Summary: Zenos, clad in the body of a Garlean general, returns to the capital and finds himself thinking about his former home.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17
Collections: Froday Flash Fiction Regular Challenges 2020





	Home, or what remains of it

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: City lights.

The street lamps in Garlemald's capital never dimmed, no matter how late at night it was. Lesser cities often implemented a brownout, as they did not have the resources to keep ceruleum generators burning night and day, but not the capital. The capital never slept. 

He should feel something about returning here, Zenos thought. It had been his home once, after all, before being deployed to Doma and then Ala Mhigo, which had rendered him too busy to come back often. As his father hadn't seen fit to summon him, he had simply stayed where he was. 

He hadn't missed Garlemald, truth be told. The insufferable tedium of existence was the same no matter where he dwelled. Now, however, as he surveyed the streets, the familiar steel constructions, the looming shadow of the royal palace in the background—he couldn't muster up even the slightest bit of nostalgia. 

None of this mattered. This city, and its people, were so… irrelevant. Pointless. They might as well not even exist. 

After meeting his beloved beast, dying and coming back in a different body and finding his own occupied by an Ascian, he had expected to feel differently about his home. Was he not a changed man, now? Should that not extend towards this place? Now that he had arrived, however, all he wanted was to retrieve what was his and leave, this time for good.

He stepped out from beneath the awning he had found shelter under. Heavy snowflakes immediately dusted his armor's shoulders and helmet. It was the season for endless snow in the endless night that occurred around the solstice. The chronicles Zenos had read as a child had explained at length the difficulties of surviving in such a place. Even after the Garlean race had discovered how to use ceruleum to warm their homes, how did one procur enough food when living in a frozen wasteland? 

The writings had been peppered with jingoism and Garlean supremacy, which, looking at the state the city was in, seemed both justified and entirely _un_ justified. Certainly, nowhere could one witness the achievements of the Empire more than here, in its very centre powered by the manyfold magitek inventions that had led the Garlean race to rule the continent, and yet, at the same time—

How empty this city, how pointless and dull. The few people Zenos encountered out in the streets so late were hollow-eyed, their gaits hunched and cautious under the flickering street lamps. Cowed, the lot of them, by his father's and great-grandfather's actions—by their desires for an obedient populace. Boring. So excrutiatingly, nauseatingly _boring._

It was just as well that he would be rid of all of this soon. He had already rendered inoperable the production sites for Black Rose. Now all that remained was to take back what was his from the thief that had absconded with it. 

And while he was at it, dispose of his foolish father for threatening to ruin his hunt as well.


End file.
